Lance Lopez Set to Unleash Tell The Truth

“Texas has been known throughout the years to be the breeding ground for some of the baddest guitar players of all time…Lance is yet another one to carry on that Texas tradition…” BILLY F. GIBBONS – ZZ TOP

“A very exciting and intense Blues Guitarist…” JEFF BECK “Lance Lopez got 3 standing ovations when he opened a show for me and I was among those standing…” B.B. KING

Texan Lance Lopez is set to unleash his long-awaited new solo album, Tell The Truth, on March 2nd 2018 on https://www.mascotlabelgroup.comProvogue/Mascot Label Group.

Tell The Truth is an autobiographical tour-de-force through the life and times of an archetypal Texas blues legend with all the highs and lows that inevitably accompany this time-honoured path. Lance Lopez has been on a slow, steady climb up the mountain to the blues-rock hall of heavyweights for the last decade, and this album declares his arrival.

“Nothin’ worth having, ever came easy to me, the sweetest victories came within an inch of defeat” ~ “Never Came Easy”

Lance Lopez has a voice that lets you know he’s walked the walk, and his smoky tenor has grown more gravely and passionate with the years, then you remember, he was brought up by the likes of Bobby “Blue” Bland, Buddy Miles, Johnny Taylor, and Lucky Peterson. Lance started playing professionally at the age of 14 in bars and clubs in and around New Orleans, joining up with soul great Johnny Taylor when he was just 17, then becoming Lucky Peterson’s band leader at 18, and eventually joining the Buddy Miles Express. He’s lived the life every day since, and you can feel every mile of the road on this album.

Check out the brand new video for Cash My Check here:

The path he has walked has not been an easy one, and even with mentors and friends like Billy Gibbons and Johnny Winter, that road is long and fraught with the necessity of the literally thousands of clubs, endless nights, low wages, and long travels – all of which leads to the many temptations that make for distractions to get one through the day. Lance Lopez, again, was mentored by the best, and that means that along with the priceless lessons in the musical life from legends like Buddy Miles, also came lessons in drink, drugs, late nights, the ravages of road food, and that side of the life that has broken so many. With the grace of good faith, friends, and family, Lance has seen it through to a healthier, happier side.

Defining his solo sound on Tell The Truth expect loads of his famous hard-edged gritty guitars, lovingly parsed and layered throughout, but there’s also a powerful full band sound on every track with throbbing bass lines, sumptuous piano and organ, wicked blues harp, thunderous drums, and Lopez’s industrial strength vocals across the whole of this outstanding song set.

Tell The Truth is above all a working-class blues rock record. Songs like “Cash My Check” and “Never Came Easy” look at life as it’s being lived, in an honest and forthright fashion. Then there are the more harrowing tales of life’s travails and temptations to be found on “High Life” and “Down To One Bar.” Even when he’s covering John Lee Hooker on an incendiary reading of “Mr. Lucky,” this is a fiercely personal record, and Lopez spares himself not one bit as he lays down life as he’s seen and lived it. Lopez has seen has demons, stared them down, and come out on the other side.

Produced and recorded over the last three years by Fabrizio Grossi in Los Angeles, this album clearly shows that Lopez has absorbed everything he’s heard, and the lessons of everyone he’s had an opportunity to share songs and stages within the last few years. Trading verses with singers such as Warren Haynes and Walter Trout, trading solos with Eric Gales, Robben Ford, Steve Lukather, and the aforementioned Mr. Gibbons has certainly served Lance well.

The album hits the ground in fourth gear, and it never looks back. The grooves are a mile wide and hit like a sledgehammer. And while there is great guitar, as you’d expect, all over the record, Lopez never overplays. There’s a high-octane reading of John Lee Hooker’s “Mr. Lucky” that sees the sound and style of the Texas legend being updated with some extra horsepower, and a barreling rhythm section. “The Real Deal” is the Lopez manifesto, and one of the cornerstones of this record. The album’s title track closes out the set, and it’s a massive piece of rock with a funkiness that won’t be ignored. A great album by any measure, regardless of how it may get labelled. Blues-rock? Hell yeah. Rock? Got it covered. The blues? It’s in everything Lance Lopez does. March 2, 2018, on Mascot Label Group.